


Nail Polish & Nightmares

by peachgal743



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Brother-Sister Relationships, Canonical Character Death, Gen, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting, sad :(
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-05
Updated: 2019-03-05
Packaged: 2019-11-12 03:18:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18002804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peachgal743/pseuds/peachgal743
Summary: Allison can remember when they were kids, or rather small trauma victims, and she and Klaus would huddle in her room late at night, pouring over tween magazines, painting their nails and putting on fashion shows. She can remember when Klaus came out to her. They were only just turned twelve and he said in a hushed voice as they looked at the spread of some 2000s heartthrob, “I think I like boys.”Allison looks back at her and Klaus's relationship, then receives a phone call. (aka introspection drabble followed by stilted dialogue I am sorry)





	Nail Polish & Nightmares

   She supposes that besides Luther, she was always closest to Klaus. That’s what she tells Patrick at least, not wanting to betray her true feelings to the man she is supposed to be able to share her life with. Allison can remember when they were kids, or rather small trauma victims, and she and Klaus would huddle in her room late at night, pouring over tween magazines, painting their nails and putting on fashion shows. She can remember when Klaus came out to her. They were only just turned twelve and he said in a hushed voice as they looked at the spread of some 2000s heartthrob, “I think I like boys.”

   Allison hadn’t really thought much of it then. It had been sort of obvious, and she didn’t know what to say. So she just rolled her eyes and replied, “Well, duh,” and continued paging through the glossy spreads that she was mesmerized by her whole childhood.

   She knows now how must he must have trusted her to tell her that, even if he wasn’t exactly quiet about it before or after. Even now, she’s not sure if he told the others. Probably Ben, maybe Vanya, but Luther? But in 2001, he was just her brother and she loved him, and she knew the only good use of her power was helping him sleep through the nightmares he so often had in those days. He was just her brother who liked the same things as her, and who really cared if he also liked boys?

   As it turns out, their dad cared. He cared a lot. Not in the sense that he thought Klaus was evil, or that he needed to be fixed, but that anything that was human about any of his children was a distraction and was to be squashed out. So when he threw open the door to Allison’s room to see his son grinning as he carefully painted his sister’s nails, his own shining red already, he was not happy. Their father decided that this nonsense could go on no longer, that Four must master his power. Klaus disappeared for three days.

   Allison was worried then like she is now whenever Claire is sick; it was a deep rooted anxiety that made her stomach churn and her throat constrict. When Klaus returned, she was relieved for only a few minutes before she realized something was very, very wrong. After that, Klaus hadn’t been the same. He didn’t come to Allison’s room anymore. When she came to him, she found him huddled with Ben, his eyes red from tears and muttering in panicky breaths about a mausoleum. She had stood just outside the doorway for several minutes before Mom came and ushered her away,

   “Let me take care of Klaus, dear, he’s ok.”

   He hadn’t been ok. He started stealing Dad’s liquor shortly after, and it was a downward slope from there. She can remember watching Klaus roll a joint under the breakfast table a year later and being as horrified and worried as Luther was disgusted and disappointed. When she told Luther she was concerned, he told her to let Dad handle it. She listened to him then, but now she regrets it as much as the other bullshit from her childhood.

   Ben’s death tipped Klaus over the edge. It sent them all on different paths, in a way. Diego left for the police academy, Vanya went to college, Allison started getting auditions, and Luther adamantly refused to leave. Klaus disappeared one night, along with a few valuable items from the house, and they all knew he had left for whatever ally he was going to get high in. She was worried then to, but paralyzed by grief and found herself unwilling to search for him when she was so busy looking ahead at her future career.

   Then she moved to LA and she met Patrick. Claire is two now, and toddling with vigor. She hasn’t seen Klaus since he ran away from the Academy, but she knows Diego has friends who pick him up for public intoxication once a month and he lets her know that their brother is still alive, for now. So when she answers the home phone during dinner, the sounds of Patrick cooing at Claire as he feeds her echoing from the dining room, she is expecting anything but the sound of her brother’s voice over the line.

   “Hey Allison!” He says, his voice cheery. She can feel the grin in his words. She is mostly relieved; she hasn’t heard from Diego in a few months now, and she had started to worry all over again.

   “Klaus?” She says, wondering if maybe she was mistaken.

   “The one and only,” her brother replies, “But enough about me! I heard you got married, when was that again?”

   “Um, a couple years ago now. Klaus I-”

   “Diego said something about a kid? We really have gotten old, haven’t we?”

   “Her name is Claire,” Allison says, still shocked by the rapid pace of the unexpected conversation.

   “You didn’t name her after me? Frankly, I’m offended,” maybe she’s wrong, but she thinks she hears some sadness in her brother’s tone, and not because her daughter isn’t named Klaus.

   “Where are you even calling me from?” She doesn’t quite mean it, but she can tell it comes off as accusatory.

   Her brother heaves a belabored sigh: “Rehab. Diego stuffed me in here. The cop that picked me up last time is his girlfriend, and apparently she convinced him to _help_ me.”

   She didn’t know it was possible to hear air quotes. “Maybe it’s for the best,” she says, because she isn’t sure what else to tell him. She can't process that Diego has a police officer girlfriend. Mostly, she finds herself unimaginably grateful for this mystery woman's concern for Klaus. He really does need help (though she's not totally sure why she feels it can't be her who helps him).

   “Yeah, yeah, whatever,” he says, and she knows instinctively that there is more to the story (An OD? More crime than sleeping in public and petty theft? She brushes away the hypotheticals that her subconscious so unhelpfully offers). She knows there was a time once when Klaus would have told her anything, and she knows just as well that that time has passed, so she doesn’t pry.

   “Anyway”, he continues, noticeably less cheery now, “I’m glad to have caught up, but I need a favor. Could you rumor me to sleep? Like when we were kids?”

   The request is another shock to her system, a true blast from the past. She had expected the Klaus of today to ask for money. “It doesn’t work as well over the phone, you know,” she says, using the soft voice she usually reserves for putting Claire to bed or comforting her after a scrape or fall.

   “That’s ok. I just…” he trails off, but Allison understands.

   “Ok. Are you at least sitting down?” At his noise of affirmation she continues, “You can call me for this any time. It’s not ideal, but it’s better than drugs.”

   “Yeah, thanks,” he mutters into the phone noncommittally. She wonders if her offer has offended him, or maybe if he feels bad about imposing.

   “Ok, here it goes,” she takes a deep breathe and focuses, summoning her power as much as she can in an attempt to make it as potent as possible despite the distance, “I heard a rumor that you went to sleep and didn’t have any nightmares.”

   She hears a resounding thud as her brother drops the phone and it clatters to the floor. She can only assume that it worked. “Good night,” she whispers into the dead line. If anyone said anything about a tear tracing down her cheek that she has to wipe away before going back to dinner where she tells Patrick it was her agent who had called, well that was just a rumor.

**Author's Note:**

> ik everyone and their mother has written about Klaus and Allison doing fun stuff together as kids but i wanted to explore their relationship. i hope u enjoy it! leave a comment if u wanna chat :)


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